Guest Blog Post from Judi Knight of New Tricks Web Design

Often People ask us to help their restaurant come up in the search engines. We take a look, but sometimes we cannot do anything to really help it succeed without redoing the site. Sites that are created in Flash or don’t have good navigation just need to be redone where they can start building up organic search. If you own a restaurant and you want to have a successful website there are some “musts”. Here are some of them:

1.    Your site must have a branded look. It can be fun and whacky or serious and sedate, but it must look pulled together and appealing.
2.    You need your menus on your site so that they can be read and downloaded. Be sure they are up to date so people who come for a particular dish are not disappointed.
3.    A printable menu – By offering a printable take-out menu you not only allow people to easily order your food, you also save money on printing and save time on phone calls. PDFs are always nice.
4.    Don’t make people think – the website must be simple and easy to use.
5.    Include a blog- Use it to post specials and have news of the staff and patrons. Include pictures and videos to promote your restaurant. Blog posts can be pushed out to Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages.